Paul in the Eternal City (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

After being released from his imprisonment in Rome, Paul resumed his itinerant ministry. During the time he was free, he wrote two letters that are included in the New Testament — 1 Timothy and Titus. Both these letters indicate that Paul was preparing for his departure from the world. They reveal some of the places he visited, and they allow some to suggest that he engaged in what can be called a fourth missionary journey. 

For some reason he was re-arrested and brought to Rome, during a period of increasing opposition to the Christian faith associated with the emperor Nero. After the initial stage of the trial, while waiting for the verdict, he wrote 2 Timothy. In it, he reveals that during the first stage, no one in Rome stood by him (4:16). Perhaps the heat of potential persecution made them afraid or maybe many of them had already been martyred. Nevertheless, he tells Timothy of his outlook as he anticipates his own martyrdom.

Drink-offering

A drink offering was a sacrifice that was offered alongside a larger offering such as a burnt offering. In comparison, it was a much smaller offering and most people would not pay attention to it. Therefore, when Paul uses this illustration of himself, he is expressing his humility. 

His use of the practice leads us to ask what the larger sacrifice was, and it is not difficult for us to supply the answer. The bigger, more important, sacrifice was the one offered by Jesus on the cross when he paid the penalty for the sins of his people. In comparison with his sacrifice, Paul’s death is a lot smaller and insignificant. This assessment does not demean Paul. But it does remind us of how Paul regarded his imminent death. It was part of his service to God, but it can never be seen as approaching the importance of the death of Jesus.

Departure looming

The word translated ‘departure’ was used of a change such as a soldier leaving camp to go elsewhere or to a boat leaving a harbour. It allowed opportunity to observe what one was leaving and to anticipate where one was going, which is what Paul does. He describes what he is leaving behind and he mentions what he anticipates.  

Paul was leaving behind his life, and what a life it was: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ He pictures himself as a soldier, as an athlete and as a servant or steward. He had fought in the army of the Lord, he had ran the lifelong race towards heaven, and he had been faithful to the calling he had received from his Master. Each of those images point to stringent testing and to prolonged perseverance.

Paul was anticipating where he was going — to a crown. A man with a crown (Caesar) was to send Paul off to get a far bigger crown, an eternal crown. In his description, he is not focussing on his arrival in heaven, although that no doubt was a wonderful experience for him. Rather he was looking beyond that event to a far more awesome one when he would appear at the judgement seat of Christ.

It is likely that Paul here is contrasting his imminent appearing before Caesar to his future appearance before the King of kings. When he appeared before Caesar, he would be treated as a criminal, and when sentenced to death he would be beheaded, the way capital punishment was administered to Roman citizens. In other words, he would be regarded as a disgrace. In contrast, when he would appear before the judgement seat of Jesus he would be honoured and given a crown. The crown is called the crown of righteousness, which probably means that righteousness is the crown rather than something else being the crown such as an area to rule over. This particular crown will be the reward of all believers.

The righteousness that Paul possessed can be seen in three ways. First, there is imputed righteousness, the standing before God that he received when he believed and when he received the perfect life of Jesus as his standing before God. Second, there is the righteousness that was produced in his life after he believed, and which would normally be called sanctification. Third, there is the perfect righteousness that he will possess for ever after the resurrection when in body and soul he will be perfect, without sin.

It will be incredible to be a sinless person. All of us know that we sin to some extent every day, in every action. It is part of the normality of the Christian life and we are grateful for the many promises in the Bible that assure us about the reality of pardon by God and which also describe the reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts throughout our lives on earth. The Holy Spirit will not convict his people of their sins in heaven although they will recall that they were sinners.

Paul reminds us that it is normal for Christians to love the appearing of Jesus. They will see him in his glory, as the heir of all things. They will given the Spirit in greater measure and have greater ability to understand the purposes of God. Then they will receive the rewards of his grace and experience the fullness of resurrection life as they are glorified forever.

Paul’s arrival

Of course, Paul was only anticipating the outcome of his arrival when he wrote these words. Although he has reached heaven, and has been there for almost two thousand years, the Day of Judgement, the day when he will receive his crown has not yet arrived. Paul in heaven is there without his body, and he tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 that he would rather have his glorified body than be in heaven without it. Nevertheless, he also valued highly the prospect of heaven.

He wrote about his arrival in heaven when he said in his letter to the Philippians that while for him to live was Christ, to die would be gain, that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord. What truths of the arrival are revealed in those words?

First, Paul indicates that the journey from earth to heaven is very short, less than a second. We do not know where heaven is, but we can say that it is less than a second away. Jesus in one of his parables mentions that the angels carried Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom. That was a marvellous escort given to each of the children of God as they are carried home. When the military guard took Paul to his place of execution on the Ostian Road, another set of guards had been sent from heaven to carry his soul there.

Second, we can see from Paul’s description that he expected to be in heaven immediately. Even as the penitent criminal on the cross had been given the assurance by Jesus of entering into glory on the day that he would die, so Paul had the assurance that immediately after he died he would be in the presence of God. No thought of a possible purgatory entered his mind. Nothing would keep his soul out of heaven, not even for a second.

Third, the psalmist in Psalm 116 says that ‘precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints’. So, it was a precious time for the Lord when Paul came to his final moments and crossed into the eternal city from the capital of the Roman Empire. Here was one of his children coming into his presence. Maybe Paul thought often of the dying experience of Stephen when he heard the dying martyr express his awareness that Jesus was observing what was happening to him. Surely we can say that since Jesus so concentrated on the dying of Stephen, so he would have consider with love the dying witness of the man he had encountered on the Damascus Road.

Fourth, it is clear from Paul’s words about crossing to heaven that his desire was to be with Jesus. No doubt, there were many people in heaven who Paul wanted to see. But there was one person above all whom the apostle wanted to meet and that is Jesus himself. 

Paul did say that being there with Jesus would be far, far better than being on earth. He does not say that it would be that much better because he would then be sinless or that he would be reunited with his friends or that he would have some degree of reward or that he would be beyond the possibility of pain or that he would no longer have to worry about the behaviour of some churches. Those aspects of heaven are important, but what really makes heaven that much better is the permanent company of Jesus, of being with him and following him to the fountains of the waters of life. 

It is not possible for us to fully appreciate what Paul is doing in heaven. From several biblical passages we can make some deductions. The description of worship in Hebrews 12 about the participation of the spirits of just men made perfect now includes the apostle Paul. He has never ceased to worship alongside the heavenly host before the throne of God. Although he was physically weak often while on earth, he has never been tired or drained as he engages in profound adoration along with the others who are there. From the description of heaven in the Book of Revelation we can appreciated that Paul is following the Lamb wherever he goes, even when he as the eternal Shepherd leads his flock to the heavenly fountains. Since God is the fountain, there is here a reminder that eternal life is about knowing God and Jesus (John 17:3), and given that was Paul’s desire on earth, how much more is that the case now that he is in heaven. 

The people who he mentions in his final letter are there with him: Onesiphorus who sought him out diligently and was not ashamed of his chain, Timothy who received the letter, Crescens, Titus and Tychicus who had been sent by him on mission work, Luke who stayed with him when others had gone, Mark who had once failed but was now regarded as useful, Priscilla and Aquila who helped him on several occasions, and the others who are mentioned whom we know nothing about apart from the fact that they served alongside him. But they are together in the presence of God. They and Paul sleep in Jesus, but that is only a way of saying that he and they are at rest. He is more alive now that he ever was on earth. 

We have traveled in the footsteps of Paul, but hopefully not as tourists. Instead, we follow those who like him are now inheriting the promises. What would Paul say to us as we do? He would tell us that serving Jesus is worthwhile, that a little bit of shame and contempt on earth is more than recompensed by the glory of heaven, that pardon of sins of which he had many is very real, and that the residents of heaven are looking forward to a wonderful future in the new heavens and new earth.